Nothing spectacular, but still tons of fun!

Now that I am in my second week of classes, I feel much less annoyed about things. My schedule has been set and can not be changed whether I like it or not, so I will start to have some kind of daily plan...which is good. I am a creature of habit after all. The only thing is, Stephanie and I still haven't heard anything about our Mandarin class yet. I hope it starts soon! We went to our first fully English class on Monday and because some of the students do not speak English as their first language, actually most of the students don't, the professor spoke very slowly. The only thing keeping me from feeling like this semester is going to be super easy, the fact that I have to do my capstone from back home. Does anyone know how to write a song in Chinese?

This past weekend, Stephanie and I went to Taipei to see Theresa and Zhang laoshi. We couldn't remember how to get to the bus station, so we asked some classmates to take us there. It was very nice of them...and it turns out it was super easy to find the train station. We got there with no problem, but once we got to Taipei Main Station, which has the bus station, train station, and MRT station all conveniently place, we couldn't find our way to the New World Mall, which is where we were going to eventually meet Theresa. It took us about 20 minutes but we finally figured it out, and actually after we met Theresa I realized that if we had just gone up the stairs next to the bathrooms we went in halfway through our search we would have made it much faster...well now we know. It was a pretty good weekend. We saw the break-dancers that I love so much (every time I pass them I get the urge to stop and watch, but I feel as though that would be weird – some of them are actually really good though). We found music stores, but sadly the CD's were more expensive than I remember them being. And we at dan-bing, my favorite Taiwanese breakfast food. It is a thing pancake-ish thing with egg cooked on it, and I got mine with bacon and cheese. So good!

While we were in Taipei we stayed with Theresa in her apartment, which is really small but still really nice. I would imagine any apartment in a big city would be small. On Saturday we met up with Zhang laoshi and she was so excited to see us! It was cute, she brought us gifts. Not just any gifts though...we got a pen, toilet paper (because public restrooms here don't always have toilet paper), some bus schedule booklets (that were in Chinese) and a pamphlet from the University she teaches at...always very practical that Zhang laoshi. Then we went to Shilin Night Market, but I soon remembered why I didn't like going during the weekends...it is super crowded. So after about 15 minutes we were ready to leave. The next day, we went to Ximending to buy a Sim Card for my phone so that I can call people if the need arises, and on the way to the store we came across an unexpected situation. A singer was set up to sign autographs and sing. Her name is Rainie and I don't really listen to a lot of her music because some of it is far too cutsie for me, but she is in some of the dramas that I watch (yes I'm a dork) and she is actually a really good actress. So we stopped to watch her sing for a couple of minutes and then we went and got my sim card when the signing started. It was kind of exciting because I'm living in a place that is so small that I can just randomly stumble across something like that...in the US, well in WV, that would have never happened.

Our journey back to Taoyuan was a little more interesting than our journey to Taipei. The MRT was an MRT ride, nothing spectacular, but when we got on the train (which takes about 40 mins) I was standing next to a couple, I think they were high schoolers, and they kept staring at me. It annoyed me, but then the guy started singing to his girlfriend and it was cute so I was no longer annoyed, but then they started staring at me again and I became annoyed again. Usually the looks don't bother me, but this did. I think it was because I was pretty sure they were talking about me, but they were speaking so quietly I couldn't hear what they were saying. I like it when I understand things people don't want me to understand. :) Then we got off the Train and it took us a while to find the bus stop. It turns out you just follow the sidewalk further than we were going, but we got confused. Anyway, now we know so next time it won't be so confusing. So really this weekend didn't have much excitement but it was really good to just hang out like we did the first time we were here.

Love you all!!